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Bell Blog - Lekkerbly

Bell Blog 14-10-2012 Lekkerbly on the Kraai. 8623

Wow, I thought last Sunday was good, but....The Kraai was cooking, gourmet stuff at that. The river is flowing at an optimal level, as other streams in the areas drop. The water is crystal clear and there is a slight algae build up but the first real rains will wash it away. The fish were not interested in dry flies, I changed to tungsten beaded nymphs and a strike indicator, then as usual the odd fish inspected the indicator. I persisted with the nymph and worked out that the fish were to be found in the faster chutes and the eyes of the pool, the cleanest and most scoured out parts of the river. I caught a number of adult fish (no parr marks), all over ten inches and very fat. They were also highly acrobatic. One fish that now haunts me must have been well over twenty inches long and it porpoised all over the pool before snapping my tippet. I am unaware of exactly how many fish I took but some of them stick in my memory, an eighteen incher and four fifteen inchers. After lunch I moved upstream and started to see numerous, very spooky, large yellowfish. I found a good pod in a fast flowing channel where I had difficulty getting the fly down and a drag free drift. I watched them feeding actively on the bottom but they would not move for the fly. I must have eventually got the drift right because I hooked one, I don’t know how large it was, all I saw the odd flash in the depths, suffice to say it was big. I was totally unable to control the fish as it slowly circulated the pool. I was unable to lift it and eventually the fly pulled loose. This was definitely my day of the season, in fact the past few seasons as well. There is a small window of opportunity before the forecast rains arrive and turn the water murky.